The fourth matchday of the 2.Bundesliga once again delivered plenty of quality action, excitement and talking points as Hertha Berlin finally ended their nightmare start to the season and Hamburg maintained their early lead at the top of the nascent table. Schalke lost for the third time, while newcomers Elversberg continue to find life tough in the higher league.
Schalke 0-2 Holstein Kiel
The Königsblauen suffered their third defeat in four games this season with a 2-0 loss at the Veltins Arena on Friday. A first half red card to Ron Schallenberg didn’t help their cause, but their defending was awful and a gung-ho attitude seemed to invite the visitors in. Goals in each half from Benedikt Pichler and Shuto Machino were both set-up by on loan signing Tim Rothe and the Storks now have three victories and nine points on the board this season.
Paderborn 1-2 Kaiserslautern
Despite dominating the first half, Paderborn ended up with nothing from the second game on Friday as Kaiserslautern’s Ragnar Ache starred in their 2-1 win. His powerful header on the hour mark was clawed out by Yannik Huth, only for Marlon Ritter to be on hand to poke up the rebound against his former club.
Ache then scored himself five minutes later with a similar strong header that the keeper couldn’t stop following sub Richmond Tachie’s cross. Paderborn did pull one back through Florent Muslija (another header), but the visitors held on.
Hertha Berlin 5-0 Greuther Fürth
Hertha’s abysmal start to the season was finally ended and it was done in some style on Saturday with a 5-0 trouncing of Fürth at the Olympistadion. The first was a gift for Swiss striker Haris Tabakovic after a poor piece of control by keeper Jonas Urbig and the summer signing Austria Vienna scored his first goal for the club as a result.
Marten Winkler then scored his first for the club eight minutes later as he fired home after the visitors has failed to clear their lines. Straight after the restart for the second period, it was 3-0 when Palko Dardai found himself as one of three Hertha players played through on goal. He kept his cool before celebrating with the relieved fans behind the goal.
Fürth coach Alexander Zorniger was sent-off for complaining before there was another debut goal in the 66th minute with Smail Prevljak scoring just two minutes after being brought on as a substitute. Tabakovic added a fifth in the 77th minute as the visitors defence opened up and invited Hertha through once again. The win will come as a massive relief to the Alte Dame and hopefully be the spark they need to get themselves going this season.
Hansa Rostock 2-1 VfL Osnabrück
Hansa made it three wins from four and put last week’s loss to Hannover behind them with s 2-1 victory at home to Osnabrück. Juan Jose Perea battled his way past two defenders to open the scoring on 26 minutes but the visitors got themselves level before half time when Dava Gnaase fired in a powerful shot that took a decisive deflection off of Janik Bachmann.
The winner came in the 67th minute. The home side were awarded a penalty, which Kai Pröger saw saved by Lennart Grill, but he managed to fire in the rebound to save his blushes.
Elversberg 0-5 Fortuna Düsseldorf
Promoted side Elversberg continue to find life in the 2.Bundesliga a real struggle with their third consecutive defeat and Horst Steffen’s side now sit bottom with just one point and twelve goals conceded already this season.
The visitors were 3-0 by half time with Felix Klaus, Jordy de Wijs and Vincent Vermeij on target. Two second half goals from substitute Christos Tziolis (one penalty) put the icing on the cake and delivered the three points to Fortuna.
Hannover 0-1 Hamburg
HSV maintained top spot in the early league table with a 1-0 win over Hannover in the late game on Saturday. Despite having defender Guilherme Ramos sent off in the 53rd minute, the Rothosen prevailed. The defender can consider himself very unlucky as it was the slightest of touches on Nicolo Tresoldi that saw him given his marching orders.
Tresoldi hit the crossbar for the hosts before Bakery Jatta became the hero of the hour with his goal in the 69th minute proving to be the winner. An arrowed finish from the edge of the box really gave Ron-Robert Zieler no chance.
St. Pauli 0-0 Magdeburg
St. Pauli were held to a third successive draw in the league as their start to the season continues to fail to ignite. On Sunday visitors Magdeburg were the latest side to frustrate the Kiezkicker and deny them anymore than a single point.
Andreas Albers had a great chance saved in the first half, while the second 45 minutes saw Marcel Hartel denied and another Albers header hit the woodwork. Luca Schuler missed a glorious, easy chance in the 71st minute and
Karlsruhe 2-0 Eintracht Braunschweig
KSC took all three points on Sunday as they downed Braunschweig 2-0. A first half goal from Leon Jensen put them in front before Eintracht’s Jannis Nikolaou was red carded for a professional foul. The home side doubled their lead in the 67th minute after earlier having a goal disallowed and penalty award revoked. Fabian Schleusener bagged the second from Lars Stindl’s assist.
Nürnberg v Wehen Wiesbaden
The home side took the three points at the Max Morlock Stadion in a game that saw three red cards. Ahmet Gürleyen was sent off for Nürnberg against his ex-club in the 11th minute and Korean Hyun-Ju Lee followed him down the tunnel five minutes before half time to level the numbers.
The visitors took the lead in the 55th minute through an Ivan Prtajin header, but the hosts responded through Jan Gyamerah in the 69th minute. A Tim Handwerker penalty put der Club in front before the referee finished his busy afternoon with another red card for Wiesbaden’s Martin Angha (again against a former club).
